"I am back!" Nikolai hollers as he arrives in the Berlin house.
"Aw, I was enjoying our stoner overlord," Al whines, "Our stonerlord."
"I haven't been stoned," Matt says dully, "A few things to report; Lovino and Antonio have tried to escape."
"Oh. You stopped them?"
"Stopped them, and Lorenzo cut both their throats. They woke up as Flavio and Tonio. Gilbert was upset, and he's shut himself in the upstairs bathroom, which is where Yao went when he came back. They haven't left since yesterday."
"And my sisters?"
"Natalya is in the bathroom too. Katyusha is asleep in the basement, and has been for the past four days. Hasn't moved. And that's everything."
"You've done well, Matt," Nikolai praises.
"I was taught by the best, Boss."
Al makes kissy noises at the pair. Matt kicks him in the dick.
Nikolai heads down into the basement. There is a strong smell of nail varnish, Feliks sitting at a coffee table with Liz, Sophia and the now awake 'other' Sweden representative Susan, giving the 'other' nations manicures, Rhiona sitting nearby brushing and re-braiding her hair. Torys sits on the bottom stair of the basement, one of Liz's hats on his head.
"Mister Russia!" he cries with a slightly exaggerated jump, "You're back?"
"Clearly," Nikolai says plainly, "How is Katyusha?"
"Asleep."
"I already know that. I meant; is she just tired? Ill? Turning to her second player?"
"I wouldn't know. The only one who really knows about the first/second player transformations is Young-Soo."
"No, he doesn't. He doesn't understand the 'other universe' at all."
"He knows more than any of us."
Nikolai growls, then sighs. "I suppose even if he's no use, he's another conquered nation, isn't he?"
"Yes, sir," Torys answers.
"Keep an eye on her," Nikolai orders before striding back upstairs.
Im Young-Soo sits outside his face, feet dipped in the pond and kicking gently, rippling the water and sending the fishes darting about. He looks up as he hears Nikolai's footsteps crunching on the path, and his eyes widen. He looks back down at his pond, then up at Nikolai.
"You're not supposed to be here," he says plainly.
"Well, I am," Nikolai says equally plainly, "And I need your help."
"Bao-Bao-Yao said I shouldn't get involved with the second players," Young-Soo says, slowly pulling his feet from the pond, "And I don't even know where Bao-Bao-Yao is, but you're here and you're not supposed to be, so now I'm scared."
"Your… Bao… Yao is in Germany."
"Why's he in Germany?"
"Never mind that, I need your help!" Nikolai snaps.
"I'm not helping you! You're not even supposed to be here!"
"I need you to help my sister," Nikolai says, "Help my sister, I can take you to your brother."
"Which sister is it?" Young-Soo asks.
"Ukraine."
"Yekaterina? I don't like Yekaterina, she's aggressive and she shouts at me."
"No, no, she's still Katyusha. She's ill, and we think it's to do with the open rift between our… universes. She's in Germany anyway, with your Yao, so we can go make sure she's okay, then you can see Yao, alright?"
"I'm bringing Yao back out with me, back to Asia. And you have to leave me alone."
"Whatever," Nikolai growls, "Just come along!"
Nikolai strides off, back west to Germany. Young-Soo dashes into his house, grabs his shoes and a shoulder bag of belongings, and hops down the path to pull them on before he runs to catch Nikolai up.
The journey back to Germany is quiet. Young-Soo follows after Nikolai, listening to music on his phone instead of trying to engage in a conversation. Nikolai is able to ignore the occasional outburst of singing or dancing.
Lutz greets them at the door, as he usually does. "Katyusha schläft noch."
"He's not supposed to be here either," Young-Soo says, "Stay away from me," he tells Lutz firmly. Lutz only stares at him.
"Lutz, get Yao down to the basement," Nikolai orders plainly, heading down to the basement.
"Why are we going to the basement?" Young-Soo asks.
"Because Katyusha's in the basement."
"Why? You haven't locked her up have you?"
"No! There's a little apartment down here. Gilbert lives here."
"Oh, yeah. I forgot about that. I don't visit often. Bao-Bao-Yao says Gilbert is a bad influence."
"That's true. Torys, is Katyusha still asleep?"
"Yeah," Torys answers. He is still sat on the bottom step, hat pulled down further over his head.
"Any changes?"
"Not that I've noticed."
"Where is she?"
"Gilbert's bed."
Nikolai steps past Torys. Young-Soo avoids Torys as widely as the stairway will let him. e glance back at the European over his shoulder, narrowing his eyes and swinging his two fingers back and forth ins a gesture of "I'm watching you." 'Torys' takes a leaf from Ebony Raven Dark'ness Dementia Way's book and sticks his middle finger up at him.
Young-Soo leans over Katyusha, running some quick, basic medical check-ups; pulse, breath, warmth, responsive eye dilation. Nikolai watches his every move, scarf writhing in warning as Young-Soo put his cheek on Katyusha's chest to check her breathing.
"She seems to be okay, just really tired," Young-Soo says calmly, "Probably been overwhelmed or depressed by something and retreated into sleep. Alternatively, something's going on in her country that's making her ill."
Nikolai sighs a breath of relief.
"Torys, on the other hand," Young-Soo says, "Definitely changing. I can sense the rift on him, and he's behaving unusually."
"Is he," Nikolai muses aloud, standing up, "Stay here. Don't do anything unnecessary."
"Mr Braginski?" 'Torys' asks, "Is Miss Katyusha alright?"
"Young-Soo is seeing to her," Nikolai says, sitting down next to 'Torys'.
"I wasn't aware Young-Soo was a doctor."
"You were the one who recommended I get Young-Soo."
"Oh. Yeah. I was, wasn't I?" 'Torys' half-laughs, "I'm tired, sorry, my memory's being weird."
"That's not the only thing," Nikolai reaches across and whips 'Torys' hat off his head.
Bright green hair tumbles down. It is thin, flat, half-dead. Tomakas is weedy, almost fragile in appearance. Dirt clings to his hands and nails, remnants of his desperate attempts to get new life to grow from the dead earth of the 'other universe'.
"You got me," Tomakas says with a huff of a dry laugh, "Better go report myself to Gilbert then, huh?"
"Probably for the best," Nikolai answers.
"Feliks is going to be upset."
"Yes, probably. But it's your own fault."
"I couldn't help crossing over. Torys got emotional and with all this crossing over and the open rift, I just sort of…. crossed, it wasn't my fault!"
"What the fuck does Torys even have to get emotional about?"
Tomakas thinks, eyes narrowed in thought, "I think… it was something to do with Natalya…"
"Natalya?"
"Yes…. Natalya and Lily. He got upset over Natalya preferring Lily over him. Fucking pathetic."
Nikolai snorts in laughter. "Like you were any better." He stands up, going back into Gilbert's bedroom. "Get your brother and go. I can look after Katyusha."
Young-Soo gets up, shoves his belongings back into his bag, and walks out of the room. Tomakas is standing at the bottom of the stairs, and gives Young-Soo a grin and a wave, blocking the stairway completely with his wide stance.
"Tomakas is blocking the stairs," Young-Soo whines/shouts, and Nikolai growls in annoyance.
"Tomakas," he calls, "Let Young-Soo past!"
"I'm not stopping him," Tomakas says innocently.
"Don't try that shit with me. I've seen you swinging your tools around, let Young-Soo get past you. Don't you have anything better to do?"
"Not really. None of the other… 'other' Baltics or Poland are here. It's rather boring, you know."
"So you're entertaining yourself by bullying young Koreans?"
Tomakas presses himself into the wall, and Young-Soo passes quickly, widely, dashing up the stairs.
Several minutes pass, before footsteps come storming down the stairs. Yao bursts into Gilbert's room, Young-Soo just behind him, clinging to his brother's arm. "Why is Young-Soo here, aru?!"
"Heh, your 'aru' is showing," Young-Soo giggles.
"I needed his help," Nikolai says.
"He shouldn't be here, aru! I don't want him being exposed to so many of you 'second players' at once, aru! And I've heard your Canada and Italy talking about some 'open rift' between the universes, and that does not sound safe, and Young-Soo is sensitive to these things anyway, and now I sound like a white suburban mom but this is still a dangerous place for Young-Soo to be and it is your fault, aru! You have no right to be dragging Young-Soo into this! He's too young, and he's too vulnerable, and he's too unstable! There's no telling what could have happened, aru!"
"Calm down, Bao-Bao-Yao, I'm okay," Young-Soo soothes.
"This is not a 'dangerous place'," Nikolai scoffs, "I 'dragged him' into nothing. I asked him for help checking Katyusha's health, that is all!"
"You should have found someone else. Or taken Katyusha to Korea. He's safer in Korea, aru!"
"I couldn't be moving her long distances in this condition!"
"You shouldn't be letting Young-Soo wander around second players with his condition!"
"It's not a condition, Bao-Bao-Yao," Young-Soo whines.
"He was about to leave anyway," Nikolai says, "We had a deal; he checked on Katyusha, then he got you and went home and I would leave him alone."
"You did?" Yao asks.
"Yeah, we did Bao-Bao-Yao," Young-Soo says proudly.
"Oh. Well done, dìdi," Yao says.
Young-Soo glows with pride.
"Russia, we will talk about this another time," Yao says firmly.
Nikolai is staring at them, smiling nostalgically.
"What is it?" Yao says suspiciously.
"Nothing, nothing. It's just… Young-Soo was being all mature, and then you come in and he turns back into that little kid you raised. When you're both together, it's like no time has passed."
"We don't talk about our pasts much," Young-Soo says.
"Oh, it's no good to bottle it up; our pasts are emotional things and emotions are heavy things to carry. You can come and talk to me, lift the weight off your chest."
"No, he can't," Yao says plainly.
"Bao-Bao-Yao says I can't."
"Shame. I love listening to people telling stories. I'm getting almost too familiar with fairytales."
"Fairytales? What are you talking about?" Yao asks.
"Oh! You tell those fairytales!" Young-Soo asks, bouncing up and down on the spot, "You told me that one about the frost-man!"
"I did?" Nikolai frowns, "I don't remember telling you any fairy stories."
"You did, you did! But I was very little."
"You were?"
"Yes! Tell me it again!"
"I don't even know what fairytale you're talking about!"
"There were two children, and a frost-man, and one was polite and one was rude and he gave them boxes."
Nikolai stares at him. "I think I know the one you mean."
"Tell me it!" Young-Soo cries. He lets go of Yao and dashes over to Nikolai, sitting on the bed next to him.
"Weren't you leaving?" Tomakas asks Yao. Yao just shrugs.
Tomakas is one of the few people trying to get greenery to grow in the 'other universe'. His hair is green because he was the last nation to have any greenery.
Yes, Tomakas/Torys swapped because Torys got friendzoned
Katyusha's okay. When Redd Scarf and I were rp'ing this, it was around the time of the Ukranian riots, but I figured that was a little inappropriate so here it's simply that she's overwhelmed/overworked
Yao is damned protective
Bao-Bao-Yao is a mash up of bao-bao (brother in Chinese) and Yao
Figuring out the meaning of Young-Soo's name was difficult. 'Immortal Warrior' may be wrong
Nikolai knowing Young-Soo when Young-Soo was little will be important later
A fairy tale next chapter. Quite a common fairy tale, one of those fairy tales that's got so many variants it doesn't really have a name
I own nothing
-Laurel Silver
